Wharton’s online course in Gamification

Here’s your chance to learn about a relatively new but fast-growing business concept – Gamification – from none other than top faculty from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. And what more, the course is being offered online.

In simple terms, Gamification is the application of digital game design techniques to non-game problems, such as business and social impact challenges. The concept is being applied by organisations in areas like marketing, human resources, productivity enhancement, sustainability, training, health and wellness, innovation and customer engagement.

Kevin Werbach, associate professor of Legal Studies at The Wharton School will teach the course on Gamification Techniques in the business world. Werbach is a leading expert on the legal, business, and public policy aspects of the Network Age.

Being offered virtually, the course reaches a large chunk of people beyond traditional students and further raises awareness and understanding of Gamification.

About the course:

The course offers dozens of examples of companies using game elements to: Promote customer-engagement, Enhance employee-productivity, Encourage sustainable behaviour change in areas such as health and wellness, and Create a better environment in the workplace.

This six-week program has a workload of 4-8 hours per week and examines the mechanisms of gamification and provides an understanding of its optimum utilisation. Students would receive a certificate of completion after completing  the course. However, students need to successfully complete a series of assignments with deadlines to receive the certificate.

This course is designed as an introduction to gamification as a business practice. No particular technical knowledge or prior coursework are required.

Eligibility:

• Students in business, IT, design, engineering, games studies, or other related fields;
• Employees at companies that could apply gamification to their business;
• Technologists or entrepreneurs seeking to incorporate gamification into their projects;
• Game designers wondering about business or social impact applications;
• Investors wondering about the financial potential of the games industry;
• Video game aficionados excited about the deeper potential of games; or
• Anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of an exciting new field

Course syllabus:

The course is divided into 12 units. Two of them will be covered each week :

1. What is Gamification?
2. Games
3. Game Thinking
4. Game Elements
5. Psychology and Motivation (I)
6. Psychology and Motivation (II)
7. Gamification Design Framework
8. Design Choices
9. Enterprise Gamification
10.   Social Good and Behavior Change
11.   Critiques and Risks
12.   Beyond the Basics

Course Format:

• The classes will comprise video lectures (between 7 and 12 minutes in length). Many of them will contain integrated quiz questions.
• Two units of lectures will be posted each week; students can watch them any time after that.
• There are also standalone multiple-choice homework assignments for most weeks of the course (5-10 questions per week), and three short peer-graded written assignments involving realistic gamification scenarios
• The course ends with a multiple-choice final exam.

With no application needed for the course, any student can register for free at coursera.org/course/gamification.